Sand Vs Gravel... Helpp

[meggyw]

i am about to set up a new 240 litre tank and unsure what is best to choose gravel or sand??
if any one can give me advise that would be great

also i shall be moving my rainbow shark, and rams across to it any advice on other fish could have with them.

 

[SamLovesCorys]

I would choose sand, as it is better for all bottom feeders, and debris stays on the surface.

 

[Marnee]

I have had both in the past, currently I use sand and any future tanks will also be sand, love it!

 

[meggyw]

awesome thank you

what suggestions on stocking the tank??
just moving my rainbow shark and rams across not sure what to add

 

[Twinklecaz]

My 60L has sand and just yesterday I finally lost my temper with the gravel in my Betta's tank and now he has sand too. Gravel is just so hard to clean IMO, you can't syphon without sucking up the gravel and you never get it clean anyway because the dirt sinks right to the bottom. With sand it all sits on the top and when you get the knack right you can clean without sucking a lot of sand up (because you can hold the syphon a little above the sand rather than in it) and you know that when it looks clean, that's because it is. All the dirt stays at the top.

 

[delta]

Hi, I'm a convert. Always had gravel but a couple of weeks ago I changed to sand and my corys love it.

As for your stocking I think you have to be careful with a red-tail shark, for example if you add another bottom feeder that's similar in shape the chances are the RTS will see it/them as a rival, whether that applies to corys I don't know. I've never had rams before so don't know a lot about what's compatible but I think they are fairly inoffensive until they start breeding. I'm sure someone else will be along who can offer you far more useful advice though.

 

[andyboot]

I have a 125 litre tank and it is split half and half. Just makes it look little less plain on the bottom, plus my cories don't seem to mind either.

Plus, you'll find quite a lot of your tanks bacteria thrives within the gravel as well as the filter. This could also be the case with sand, but I dunno, although probable.

 

[Dazzler666]

I'm a sand convert in my new 5ft tank .... Much better!!

 

[FishLover66]

I recently swapped from natural gravel to high-grade white aquarium sand. While I love the look and feel of the 'beach' sand, I've actually decided to switch to pool filter sand instead as I think it would be a better compromise between both substrates. I do think sand looks much better than gravel, so I have no desire to go back to gravel. The white sand really brightened up my tank and my Sterbai cories stood out, but it really didn't take long at all for it to look dirty and I have apparently not gotten the hang of vacuuming it, since I can never get it to look clean even after a major water change or multiple water changes in one week. It's very frustrating!

The other issues that I've noticed with the aquarium sand is that you need to aerate the substrate because the grains of sand are so tight that it doesn't allow for any air to reach the bottom, so bad bacteria multiplies, and the sand will turn black. Plus when you do stir it up, the fumes stink like rotten eggs. Aquarium sand stirs up VERY easily.

Maybe others with experience with PFS can chime in here, since I don't have any experience with it yet. I'm hoping that it will be easier to vacuum and keep clean since the granules are larger and heavier and the color is more natural looking--beige to brown/black. I also can't see it getting packed down or bad bacteria growing at the bottom of the tank since the grains are larger and courser than aquarium sand.

 

[ShinySideUp]

My big tank has sand and it's nice when you first put it in but if you have a lot of tank furniture it's a #29### to keep clean as most of the crap gets underneath the decoration. I've just had to rehash my small tank and I decided to stay with gravel as IMHO it's easier to clean. It's small gravel though, 2-3mm maximum, so ok for bottom feeders although if I had Kulhi loaches in there they couldn't bury themselves as they do in sand (in my big tank I don't see them unless I move something).

Basically, I couldn't decide so gravel in one, sand in the other. I did toy with the idea of a mix but decided I would never be able to keep them separate.

 

[RossC]

I'm gonna go against the grain here and say I can't stand using sand. I've tried it three times and hated it every time. It looks nice the day you put it in but once debris start to collect it really shows up, which in my opinion is annoying because I don't want to vacuum everyday for a clean looking tank. Also as FishLover66 mentioned you have to aerate it which is another pain in the #17#####. There was one section covered by plants that I didn't aerate as much and it soon turned rank. I'd go with a nice fine gravel any day. So much easier IMO. But I must admit all the other sand tanks I've seen of peoples on here look beautiful, but so do the gravels

Rant over haha

 

[Wandering]

I have a number of tanks from 20l to 170l and now use 1/2" layer of sand at the front and 1" layer of gravel at the back and underneath both there is a layer of John Innes potting compost in my latest tanks and various other plant feeding substrates in the older tanks. The gravel tends to migrate into the sand which gives a natural look to the tank. I also have lots of plants. Malaysian trumpet snails burrow into the sand, keeping it loose. In one tank I have tried some assassin snails to reduce the number of MTSs and they ate the lot. But assassin snails also burrow so also turn over the sand. I think the trick is to keep the sand layer thin and have something in there to turn it over. And don't put in objects that cover large areas of sand that the burrowers can't get to. You might have guessed that I go in for low maintenance and you'd be right. I haven't hoovered a tank for over a year now and they are all doing just fine. In fact I've just started a new tank with a bucket or two of old tank water complete with mulm from the filter. At the moment its lying on the sand but I'm confident that it will disappear as the tank matures.

 

[FishLover66]

Shiny and Ross, what kind of sand are/were you using? Was is PFS, Play Sand, or premium aquarium sand? If it was pool filter sand, than I'm majorly bummed, since I was planning on switching to that.

 

[gregswimm]

I have gravel and sand, and sand annoys the hell out of me. Can never seem to keep it clean. But it really all depends on what fish you have and how little effort you want to put into keeping it clean. If you have cories/loaches/banjo catfish/almost every substrate spawner then you have to go sand. Gravel is easy to clean easy, just stick a grav vac in the gravel and it will chrun out all the mulm, but you cannot do this in a planted tank. Gravel is also easy to plant in get flourite and cover it with gravel, best plan sub ever.

Edit: also gravel wont get stuck in your impellers and kill them.

 

[RossC]

Shiny and Ross, what kind of sand are/were you using? Was is PFS, Play Sand, or premium aquarium sand? If it was pool filter sand, than I'm majorly bummed, since I was planning on switching to that.

I was using play sand, didn't want to fork out loads of money in case I didn't like it.